A mother and father were arrested on homicide charges after being connected to the death of their 2-year-old daughter.
On July 7th, around 9:54 a.m., authorities received reports regarding an infant not breathing.
First responders arrived to the 100 block of Aberfeldy Way in Kiln Creek and found the young girl unresponsive. She was pronounced dead on the scene at approximately 10 a.m. by medics.
“A firefighter at the scene noted that lividity, the settling of blood post-mortem, had already set in on the front and back of the child’s body. Additionally, she noted that one of the child’s arms was particularly cold, which ‘struck her as off’ and the child’s face had ‘crease lines,’” according to reports. “There was a large amount of clothing, trash and unclean dishes along with an overflowing litter box. Additionally, cigarette butts and loose change were in the crib the child slept in, which was empty except for dry blankets with cigarette burn holes, piled upon urine-soaked blankets.”
Jesse Alan Gunn,37, and Anna Elizabeth Raines, 29, were arrested and initially charged with one count each of felony child neglect.
Those charges were later upgraded after the autopsy report showed the child died from drug and nicotine exposure.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that the little girl’s cause of death was “acute combined fentanyl and Xylazine overdose in addition to nicotine exposure; laboratory evidence of SARS-Covid 19 infection.”
Gunn and Raines both admitted to using opioids in the three days prior to their daughter’s death.
Anna Raines and Jesse Gunn remains in custody at Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail without bond.
Raines’ father, Timothy Raines, is also charged with felony neglect.
